Seòmar agus comataidhean

Sorry—I will write to the committee.

There is certainly on-going dialogue. I myself have had dialogue with the UK Government about the deposit return scheme, wet wipes, single-use vapes and other matters. I come to officials for the dialogue that has been happening at official level.

There is nothing in the bill that says that they must be the same.

I absolutely agree with the member on that. The issue has been highlighted—George Monbiot wrote an essay for The Guardian in which he described how he got his fish a waste-handling licence. That is how easy it is to get a licence, at least down in England.

Here in Scotland, the Resource Management Association Scotland has raised with me the issue of wanting to create a higher bar for waste carriers. We are absolutely looking at that issue, under something called the integrated authorisation framework—have I got that right?

We do not need to make legal provision for that in the bill, but work is under way on the issue because it is—as you rightly highlight—something that we need to do.

That is an interesting question. In the consultation, we consulted on charging for waste collection, but we have not brought that forward in the bill.

You make a good point about the standardisation of charging and what it would look like to incentivise and support people to do the right thing. We will now need to take that forward with local authorities through the code of practice. We do not intend to impose that on local authorities through the bill; I would like to develop it with them through the code of practice.

Do you mean the support measures?

No, there is no staging approach to implementation as the householders’ duty of care already exists. Issuing a fixed-penalty notice of £200 pounds is absolutely intended to be, as Janet McVea said, a last resort when there is no basis for supposing that the householder made an attempt to meet their duty of care. The measure is to tackle persistent and repeat offenders.

On other work that I am doing in this space, I have met Gumtree—twice, I think—to talk about how the company can support its users and customers to do the right thing. One of the things that we have suggested to Gumtree, which I believe that it intends to implement—this is not something that we are legally obliging it to do—is that people who advertise white-van-man waste services should post their waste management licence. That would enable the householder to complete their duty of care, because they could point to having seen a waste management licence number.

That is an example of measures that we can help online platforms and other services to put in place, so that the householder can say that they have met their duty of care.

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the order, which will change the amount that is payable under a fixed-penalty notice for fly-tipping offences from £200 to £500. That is the maximum level that the fixed-penalty amount can be set at by order under section 33A(10) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

We are taking this action to show that we are serious about tackling waste crime. Updating the amount of the FPN for fly-tipping is a commitment made in the national litter and fly-tipping strategy and in the year 1 action plan, which was published in June 2023. It will strengthen the existing enforcement regime for fly-tipping so that the fine issued by a fixed-penalty notice will now be a flat rate of £500.

The increase has broad support from the public and relevant organisations. The response to the public consultation on the national litter and fly-tipping strategy, which concluded in March 2022, showed strong support. The analysis of responses showed that 84 per cent of the 925 responses supported the increase, and 90 per cent of the 79 organisations that responded supported the increase to £500.

There are small financial implications for enforcement bodies such as local authorities, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park and Police Scotland, which will, as a result of the increase, incur minor administration costs in changing notices and internal procedures, although I note that those organisations were among those who responded positively to the increase during the consultation process.

Increasing the FPN is not the only action that we will take. It sits alongside a range of other measures that are set out in the national litter and fly-tipping strategy and year 1 action plan, such as publishing research into the enforcement of littering and fly-tipping, working to develop more effective collaborative working across organisations such as SEPA and local authorities, and supporting SEPA in offering a grant scheme to private landowners so that they can find ways to deter and deal with fly-tipping.

That is a very good point. The guidance for local authorities has been published only recently, so it is probably not in the wider public domain. Therefore, yes, absolutely, we can have a think about that.